Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to networking, and more particularly relate to optimizing delivery of content in a network.
Devices and links in a network have specific capacity constraints. For example, a link can carry a certain limited amount of information per unit of time. The limit is often dictated by physical properties of the link, and also by the link control elements (hardware and software) of the network. When a link is utilized to capacity, it cannot accept any requests to deliver more information. This situation occurs, for example, when a link is carrying the traffic of a number of users and no more resources are available for new user service requests. In this situation, the link control elements generally need to either: (1) drop current users to accommodate new requesters, (2) reduce the amount of information being carried for each user in order to free up capacity to accommodate new requesters, or (3) deny service to new requestors. These options are often not desirable because they may result in unsatisfactory quality of experience to users.